Bettongia lesueur graii (Gould, 1841:178)
Inland boodie, Inland burrowing bettong, Gray's rat-kangaroo, Gray's jerboa kangaroo (Krefft, 1866:21), Gray's bettong (Gray, 1843:93), booming (Murray-Darling aboriginals) (Krefft, 1866:21), see (Burbidge et al., 1988:15; Burbidge & Short, 2023:292) for other aboriginal names
Taxonomy & Nomenclature
Synonym/s: Betongia graii Gould, 1841:178; Bettongia grayi Gould, 1841:178; Bettongia Grayii Gould, 1841:178; Hypsiprymnus Graii Gould, 1841:178; Perameles harveyi Waterhouse, 1842:47
The validity of this taxon is disputed (see Jackson & Groves, 2015:136), but has been recognised by (Burbidge & Short, 2023).
Conservation Status
Extinct (Burbidge, 2024) or invalid (synonym)
Last record: 1940's (specimen) (Flannery, 1990; Burbidge & Short, 2023:293); c.1960 (aboriginal knowledge) (Burbidge et al., 1988)
Distribution
Western Australia, Australia
Type locality: "Swan River, W.A." (Calaby & Richardson, 1988:55)
Type locality (harveyi): S.A. (Calaby & Richardson, 1988:55)
Biology & Ecology
Hypodigm
Holotype: BMNH 1841.1157 (adult male; skin & badly damaged skull) (Calaby & Richardson, 1988:55)
Holotype (harveyi): BMNH 55.12.24.416 (adult; skin without feet) (Calaby & Richardson, 1988:55)
Other specimens:
FU2857 (Bettongia sp. cf. lesueur) LdP3) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2859 (RdP2) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2862 (RdP3) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2864 (RP3) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2868 (L maxilla with P2, dP3, M1) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2870 (lm3) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2903 (RM3, RM1) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2920 (lm2 or lm3) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2930 (lm4) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2933 (rp3) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2943 (l dentary with i1 and p3) (Matthews et al., 2025)
FU2947 (?dp2?0) (Matthews et al., 2025)
Media
References
Original scientific description:
Gould, John (1840). Description of a new species of Hypsiprymnus. Proc. Zool. Soc. London 1840: 178-179.
Other references:
Anonymous. (1842). Australian mammalia. Tasmanian Journal of Natural Science, Agriculture, Statistics, &c. 1(4): 382-385.
Bamford, Mandy et al. (2009). Mammals of the Avon Region. Bentley, W.A.: Department of Environment and Conservation. 132 pp. [pp. 64-65]
Baynes, A., Merrilees, D. and Porter, Jennifer K. (1975). Mammal remains from the upper levels of a late Pleistocene deposit in Devil's Lair, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 58: 97-126.
Burbidge, A. A. (1995). Burrowing Bettong, Bettongia lesueur, pp. 289-291. In: Strahan, Ronald (ed.). The Mammals of Australia. Chatswood, N.S.W.: Reed Books. 756 pp.
Burbidge, Andrew A. (2024). Australian terrestrial mammals: how many modern extinctions? Australian Mammalogy. https://doi.org/10.1071/AM23037
Andrew A. Burbidge; Ken A. Johnson; Phillip J. Fuller, and R. I. Southgate. (1988). Aboriginal Knowledge of the Mammals of the Central Deserts of Australia. Aust. Wildl. Res.15: 9-39.
Burbidge, Alan A. and Short, J. C. (2023). Burrowing Bettong, Bettongia lesueur, pp. 291-293. In: Baker, Andrew M. and Gynther, Ian C. (eds.). Strahan’s Mammals of Australia (4th ed.). Wahroonga, NSW: Reed New Holland Publishers. 848 pp.
Burbidge, Alan A., Short, Jeff C. and Fuller, Phillip J. (2007). Relict Bettongia lesueur warrens in Western Australian deserts. Australian Zoologist 34(1): 97-103.
Cabrera, 1919
Calaby, J. H. and Richardson, B. J. (1988). Potoroidae, pp. 53-59. In: Walton, D. W. (ed.). Zoological Catalogue of Australia. Volume 5. Mammalia. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service. x + 273 pp. [p. 55]
Department of the Environment (2016). Bettongia lesueur graii in Species Profile and Threats Database, Department of the Environment, Canberra. Available from: http://www.environment.gov.au/sprat. Accessed Mon, 22 Aug 2016 20:18:25 +1000.
Duncan, F. M. (1937). On the dates of publication of the Society's "Proceedings," 1859–1926. With an appendix containing the dates of publication of "Proceedings," 1830–1858 compiled by the late F.H. Waterhouse, and of the "Transactions," 1833–1869, by the late Henry Peavot, originally published in P.Z.S. 1893, 1913. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1937: 71-84.
Finlayson, Hedley Herbert. (1961). On central Australian mammals. Part IV. The distribution and status of central Australian species. Records of the South Australian Museum 14: 141-191.
Flannery, Timothy Fridtjof, Kendall, Paula and Wynn-Moylan, Karen (illustrator). (1990). Australia's Vanishing Mammals: Endangered and Extinct Native Species. Surry Hills, N.S.W.: RD Press. 192 pp.
Giles, E. (1889). 'Australian Twice Traversed: the romance of exploration, being a narrative compiled from the journals of five exploring expeditions into and through central South Australia and Western Australia from 1872 to 1876.' (Sampson Low, Marston, Searle and Rivington: London.)
Glauert, L. G. (1926 "1925"). A list of Western Australian fossils. Supplement no.1. West. Aust. Geol. Surv. Bull. 88: 36-71.
Glauert, Ludwig. (1933). The distribution of the marsupials in Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 19: 17-32.
Gould, 1841 [original description?]
Gould, 1855
Gould, J. (1863). The Mammals of Australia. London, England: published privately.
Gray, John Edward. (1843). List of the specimens of Mammalia in the collection of the British Museum. London, The Trustees.
Harper, Francis. (1945). Extinct and Vanishing Mammals of the Old World. New York, N.Y.: American Committee for International Wildlife Protection, Special Publications 12: 1-850.
How, R. A., Cooper, N. K. and Bannister, J. L. (2001). Checklist of the mammals of Western Australia. Records of the Western Australian Museum Supplement No. 63: 91-98.
Iredale, Tom and Troughton, Ellis Le Geyt. (1934). A check-list of the mammals recorded from Australia. Mem. Aust. Mus. 6: i-xii, 1-122.
Jackson, Stephen and Groves, Colin. (2015). Taxonomy of Australian Mammals. Clayton South, Melbourne: CSIRO Publishing. 529 pp. [p. 136]
Krefft, Gerard. (1864). Catalogue of Mammalia in the Collection of the Australian Museum. Sydney: Australian Museum.
Krefft, Gerard. (1866). On the vertebrated animals of the lower Murray and Darling, their habits, economy, and geographical distribution. Transactions of the Philosophical Society of New South Wales 1862-1865: 1-33.
Lundelius, Ernest L. (1963). Vertebrate remains from the Nullarbor Caves, Western Australia. Journal of the Royal Society of Western Australia 46: 75-80.
Lundelius, Ernest L. and Turnbull, William D. (1984). The mammalian fauna of Madura Cave, Western Australia. Part VI: Macropodidae: Potorinae. Fieldiana, Geology, new series no. 14. Field Museum of Natural History, Chicago.
Matthews, Roger L., Fusco, Diana A., Gully, Grant A., Arnold, Lee, J., Demuro, Martina, Spooner, Nigel A., Wells, Roderick T. and Prideaux, Gavin J. (2025). Kiana Cliff: a new fossil vertebrate site of probable last interglacial age from Eyre Peninsula, South Australia. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Australia. https://doi.org/10.1080/03721426.2025.2452015
Menkhorst, Peter W. (2009). Blandowski’s mammals: Clues to a lost world. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 121(1): 61-89.
Ogilby, J. Douglas. (1892). Catalogue of Australian Mammals, with Introductory Notes on General Mammalogy. Australian Museum, Sydney: Catalogue No. 16: viii + 142 pp. [including p. 119]
Thomas, Oldfield. (1907). List of further collections of mammals from Western Australia, including a series from Bernier Island, obtained for Mr. W.E. Balston; with field-notes by the collector, Mr. G.C. Shortridge. Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London 1906: 763-777.
Wakefield, Norman A. (1966a). Mammals of the Blandowski Expedition to north-western Victoria, 1856–57. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 79(2): 371-391.
Wakefield, Norman A. (1966b). Mammals recorded for the mallee, Victoria. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Victoria 79(2): 627-636.
Waterhouse, George Robert. (1841). Marsupialia, or Pouched Animals (Mammalia, vol. XI). In: Jardine, William (ser. ed.). The Naturalist's Library (vol. XXIV). Edinburgh: W.H. Lizars / London: Henry G. Bohn. xvi + 324 pp.
Waterhouse, George Robert. (1842). On two new species of marsupial animals from South Australia. Proc. Zool. Soc. Lond. 1842: 47-48.
Waterhouse, George Robert. (1846). A Natural History of the Mammalia. Volume 1, Containing the Order Marsupiata or Pouched Animals. London: Hippolyte Baillière. 553 pp + 20 pls.
https://extinctanimals.proboards.com/thread/21403/bettongia-lesueur-graii-burrowing-bettong